November roundup

In November, I finished:

- the Juliet sweater for DD#2 who has worn it several times.

- 2 dog sweaters for Lucy, on a whim.

- 2 dishcloths, since the first one works so well.

- a CIC vest, since too long without making one of these makes my fingers itchy.

- a charity baby hat that I never posted about.

I also worked on:

- the teal cardie. The sleeves seem much too big for the body, so it's been in timeout.

- my first monkey socks. They were frogged and started again with the correct size needles, and I"m liking them much better.

- my first EZ's BSJ. All this needs are two seams and it will be done.

I'm surviving retail craziness at work, two Christmas gifts were bought last week, the living room/hall/foyer's ceiling is mostly painted.

Time to sit back with my monkey socks and watch a movie!

thursdays and monkeys

If "Tuesdays are for spinning", then "Thursdays are for avoiding the painting". That's what I did today--I avoided painting.

It was easy to do this on Tuesday because:
1. I had other things to do (like color my hair, then get a cut.)
2. Say it with me: "Tuesdays are for spinning".

Today, though, was my second day off work this week and the painting was harder to avoid. I need to paint the living room/hall/foyer before the wood floor goes down and I'm having trouble getting the motivation. By the end of the day, I didn't start the painting, but I ripped up some more carpet as a commitment that I WILL be making progress soon. (Besides, who wants to paint when it's dark?)

I've been told to post some before pics and progress pics, so here's the first set.

Yes, this is a dartboard hanging in my living room. If you look closely, you'll see the square outline of what used to be there--our wedding picture. It came down a year ago when the china closet was moved there to redo the dining room. when the china closet was moved back, a certain member of my household seized the perfect opportunity to hang the dartboard.




hey, you're going to be painting anyway, so it should be fine.

and the darts shouldn't leave any holes in the walls--they're plastic.


see how well that worked?



yep, every day there's a new challenge. like right now--my shift key isn't working.... what is that about

i've finally taken my monkey out of timeout.

no, not this one.



but this one.



my monkey sock. it was turning out too small. i tried talking myself into going ahead--it'll block out okay, right

finally, i tried it on again, realized that there was no way it'll block okay, and ripped it out.

i guess i'll just go up a needle size, although 3's seem to be big.

then i discovered--i was using a size too small to start with--and this is with str mediumweight yarn. duh.

i've switched to 2's--the size i should've been using from the beginning, and they're just speeding along.

all is well, i've avoided painting for another day, soon i'll have a new pair of socks.

now if my shift key would start working again....

Random Tuesday

Just had to show this picture because right after I had last blogged, Jasper decided to take a rest on the new rug.

Quick--get the camera. But make no sudden moves so as not to scare him off.





Last week he turned 15--he's an old guy.

Also, here's some crafts by DD#2. She covered some clear glass ornaments with sculpy clay for some cute decorations. (DS#2 did the frog.) I've been told that the penguin is my Christmas present, but if it sits around in the kitchen for a week, then it's fair game for a picture.



Doesn't everyone have ornaments hanging from the chandeliers?





Since Tuesdays are for spinning, here's a picture of my purple yarn. I didn't spin it today, but it was taken off the bobbin today, so that counts.



Another bobbin full of yarn. I'm getting better. Not good, but better.



I see a scarf in my future.

Where I knit a dog sweater (or two)

Valeria made a good guess that this was a soaker ('cause as you know, I make them a lot).



However, it's not. It's a vest.



(Shown off on my new rug just inside my sliding glass door in the dining room.)

Me: "Look, Jasper! A rug for you where you can lay in the sun and be all cuddly (and I can throw it into the washer if you make any messes on it)."

Jasper: "barkbarkbarkbarkbark. sigh. sneeze." ("I'm going to sleep on the couch now. Messes? What messes?")


Speaking of dogs, DD#1 brought home her puppy for Thanksgiving. When I mentioned that I was going to knit Jasper a sweater, she asked for one for Lucy, too.

Now, Jasper is an old dog and spends half of the day shivering (the half when he's not under the blankets.) I think a sweater makes a dog look silly, but in this instance I'm ready to give it a try. However, when I looked through my yarn for something washable and warm, all I found was girl colors.

And that's how I knit Lucy a dog sweater on Thanksgiving.



It's the Penny sweater from Knitty. One skein of bright Red Heart Acrylic, one black cocker spaniel puppy, what's not to love?

Unfortunately, Lucy has left town with her owner, so there will no modelling session, and I will have to mail the sweater.

Figuring that I had enough time.....I made her another.

This time I used some glittery Christmas acrylic yarn, used the same number of stitches, but used stockinette instead of the pattern stitch and look what happened:



There's a slight difference in size.

There's also no chance that I will fix it. Knitting two items with acrylic is enough for me. The Christmas yarn got stuck on the cable of the needles and was a real struggle to move it along.

I will mail this package out soon with the following instructions:

If it fits, keep it. It if doesn't, throw it in that "circular bin" since there's not a chance that I will fix it. Love, Mom.

EZ's BSJ

Both Knit Wit and Dj guessed correctly that I'm knitting a baby surprise jacket. In the knitting world it's commonly called EZ's BSJ (Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket). Usually, one can just use the initials and another knitter instantly knows what you're talking about. (This I've learned in the last 3 years cruising around the 'net. Before that it was "who"? and "what"? Now it's "ah-ha".)

This being my first BSJ, I'm not positive, but I'm imagining that once you've knit this, you never forget the shape of it. It's a crazy shape, isn't it?



I'm down to the buttonhole row, so the knitting part will soon be completed. The fold-as-oragami-and-seam-the-shoulder part will be postponed 'til another day ('cause I'm still easily distracted.)

I'm not the only distracted one in this household, as evidenced by DD#2's craft project of the day:



That's right. She peeled a Clementine in one piece, ate the insides, then glued the peel back together.

There is no homework, and vacation has started.

I'll spare you a picture, but 2 more heavy pieces of furnature have been moved back to the dining room, and one more bag of trash has been generated.

Some spinning has been done today (because "Tuesdays are for spinning" as per the Yarn Harlot), but those pictures will also be for another day.

Instead, here's a picture of an almost completed project. Can you guess what it is?



Hint: This is something that I make a lot of.

(Not only did I end the sentence with a preposition, I ended the whole post with one. English 101, where art thou?)

Easily distracted

I've been easily distracted recently. I start a project, put it down, start another one. Stew about the first one for awhile, then start a third. Finish knitting a project, but don't sew in the ends, so it really doesn't count as finished. Print out a pattern for a fourth project, and so on, and so on, and so on.

For some reason, I can be focused at work. I can finish a job and clean up before starting a new one.

Not so at home.

Here's my current project: putting the drawers back in my buffet table. (Check out the new quarter round molding--the dining room floor is done and the first heavy piece of furnature is back in.)



The drawers were removed, and are being sorted out before being replaced. You can see where I stopped. Since sorting the first two drawers, I have brought in 2 containers from the shed and sorted them, dug through my storage under the staircase to weed out some stuff in there. Three bags of trash have been generated.

Does my house look any better? Not at all. (Unless you count my pretty new molding and the empty spot in the living room where the buffet table used to be.)

Do I feel like I accomplished something? Sort of. But now I have to make another trip to the dump.

Here's the start of my third project (or is it my fourth?)



Can anyone guess what it is?

Hint: All knitters should make at least one of these just for the experience.

It's time now to get back to sorting. Or knitting. Hmmm....what a choice. :)

Juliet

Finally.....here's the promised pictures of the Juliet sweater.

To re-cap:
It was made for DD#2 (with her approving the pattern and picking out the yarn) knitting the XS size with 2 strands of Bernat cashmere (only 5% cashmere, but still super soft). It used 12 skeins. The pattern is found here on zephyrstyle.



It about a week to knit, and was fun the whole way through. DD chose one button, rather than 3 as the pattern suggested. A button loop is made for each button, so this decision can be left til the end.



I believe there were 8 pattern repeats of the lace. Nice and easy, but still fun.




This picture says it all.

All about me

Anyone wearing wool socks this week? I have, and it's been nice and warm. It's taken awhile for the cold weather to come, but it looks like it's here to stay. (At least as far as the air conditioner being turned off goes.)

Today I felt very much like I'm a knitter. I had on my hoodie and a pair of wool socks, and was carrying my purse. I felt a bit silly (but warm).

I made myself 2 more dishcloths, since the first one has been well used. They aren't in the rotation yet, but will be soon.



I've started a pair of monkey socks. I'll look up the yarn later (I think it's STR med. weight, but don't quote me), and size 2 dpns.



As you can see, the yarn is black, grey, and white variegated, and thrills me for some reason. It's looking very zebra stripe-ish, isn't it?

In keeping with today's theme, which is apparently all about me, here's my work apron, all painted for the winter season. (It's covered with snowflakes since the stencils I bought had 12-15 different ones and I felt compelled to do one of each.)




I'll get back to knitting for other people (and will show you DD's finished sweater soon), but until then it's been fun to just knit for me. :)

Note to self: Oct. FO's

A note to myself on my Finished Objects for October:

A Hooded Tunic, a kid's vest, and a Christmas gift. No socks were touched (kind of odd, but there are no sock WIP's. I'm itching to cast on one, so maybe tonight's the night.)

The teal cardigan was taken up again. Most of the first sleeve was finished, so all that's left is the second sleeve (and all the finishing work, yada, yada.)

The Juliet sweater is mostly done. The knitting has been completed, and approved by DD#2. A button needs to be purchased, and ten gazillion ends need to be hidden. (If I had thought ahead of time that I would do an "end of the month" accounting, I would've worked harder on this one.)

I'm in to Ravelry, and created my rettink picture (see sidebar on the right.)

When asked why did I make that self-portrait I responded,

"You know how you need to vacuum, so you come up with all sorts of other things to do so that you don't vacuum? That's why."

And now it's my Ravelry id.

small pic upload